www.michigansportfishing.com

captain john · #1 (**permalink**) 11-11-2003, 05:36 PM

I have just started a new buisness and just had to have a web site. I didn't know the first thing about designing one and I could not aford a professional site. I played around and tought my self some basics and this is what I came up with. www.michigansportfishing.com
Any and all advice and criticizm would be helpfull.

Thanks a bunch Captain John

computers · #2 (**permalink**) 11-11-2003, 06:21 PM

Hi! You did a really good job, on your site, for it being a first time effort! The animated graphic on the left (fish jumping out of the water) is a good touch, but the graphic is over pixilized, and not very clear. Your layout overall is good, but lengthy, maybe continue it on a second page.

adposter · #3 (**permalink**) 11-11-2003, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain john

I have just started a new buisness and just had to have a web site. I didn't know the first thing about designing one and I could not aford a professional site. I played around and tought my self some basics and this is what I came up with. www.michigansportfishing.com
Any and all advice and criticizm would be helpfull.

Thanks a bunch Captain John

I'm impressed! For a beginner, that is one good website you made there. I'm just not quite sure if those transition effects work on different browsers like netscape or others especially older versions. But for Internet Explorer it looks great. I'm impressed with your rollover buttons. What graphics program did you use for the images?

I assume you used FrontPage for the HTML design cause of the transition effects. Anyways, keep it up. It looks great!

Jon

captain john · #4 (**permalink**) 11-11-2003, 09:32 PM

The graphics are a little cute , just tried to liven it up a little. I used front page for my editor and Adobe photo shop for the images. Do you think the rollover effects are a detriment to the site?. thanks for you time. Captain John

rocky1 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-13-2003, 04:36 AM

Hi John,

Great looking site, but you have a few minor problems that need fixing.

First, I would agree with comments above on the jumping fish, you've stretched that gif too far and it's not pretty anymore! Thought I had another for you, but it appears to be the same one. (Likewise have the one on the photo page.)

Pictures on the Customer Letters page are pretty blurry. File size looks almost like you thumbnailed them, but distortion in the picture looks like you sized them in another program. If you didn't, try auto-thumbnailing them in Front Page. If by chance you did, maybe try it again and leave them closer to their original size, so they don't get so fuzzy looking.

You seem to have a couple of different layouts in navigation bottom of the page... or three... or maybe four! (I hadn't had even one drink, and I was confused there!) Top row was good as I moved across it, but the bottom row is different every page for some reason. I wasn't sure where I was at! That's an easy fix simply highlight it all and copy and paste the whole section from one of the top pages to those on the bottom. I would open one good page, and all the problem pages at once. Copy it, and go through and paste it to everything before I ever saved any of it. That saves on wondering which ones you did and didn't get too, as you move through them.

All but 4 of your pages exceed 800 pixels wide, thus viewers in 800 x 600 resolution pick up side to side scroll, which is not good considering they make up about 40% of the viewing market. Highlight your tables, in their entirety, right click on them and select Table Properties. At the table menu, top right corner, set the Width to a percentage basis. I typically use 99%, as 100% will occasionally cause side scroll for some odd reason.

If you have tables within tables that are set at fixed pixel width, those also will have to be changed, as might the size of any pictures. The homepage for example, center right cell where you have the picture and address, the picture width needs to be brought down to about 200 x 150 and the table there needs to be set at about 95% first, to effect the changes to overall table width on the page. Otherwise you're going to be beating your head against the wall, wondering why it won't size down for you! Always work from the inside out when sizing tables.

By using percentages this will allow your tables to fit the resolution selected by the viewer. Be advised this may cause problems in your layout, so you'll want to check it in both 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 after you've finished playing with it. You'll still have problems at 640 x 480 but that's pretty much an obsolete setting, so I don't worry about it much.

Your Meta Keywords and Description are both way long. In fact they would both likely cause you to be docked on Search Engines. The search engines also want to see your keywords used in text on the page, and you don't have enough text there to use them sufficiently to benefit you on the engines. You're better off focusing on a few good keywords than you are on a whole bunch of them from a persepctive of optimizing for the engines. You might want to try running a few of your primary keywords through this Search Engine Optimization tool and see what it suggests ~~> http://www.instantposition.com/seo_doctor.cfm. And, speaking from experience, forget getting ranked with the keyword fishing! There's simply too much competition out there for that one.

Otherwise it looks great for a first effort! In fact it brought back many fond memories, as the color scheme is pretty similar to what I used on my site when I first put it together, on top of having the same subject matter, and having a few of the same gifs.

Should you have any questions on anything, drop me a line at the e-mail button below, I'll be glad to try and answer them for you. Have likewise been running Front Page for a little over two years now, so I know a few tricks there as well.

Rocky

Leisa · #6 (**permalink**) 11-13-2003, 04:56 AM

You really have a lot of good information to offer! Your work is really great for a first-timer. My only gripe is that page transition. Personally, it drives me a little crazy. On a high speed connection (and especially a dial-up connection) it's no fun being held up by a transition effect. Other than that I think you have a GREAT start. I can tell you have many hours of work in that site and you should be very proud of it!

Best of luck to you!

captain john · #7 (**permalink**) 11-13-2003, 06:47 AM

I will go to work. As far as key words go i was new to this and bought a tool from my hosting company.( traffic blazer) I am now see there are better tools on the market.I did design it in 1024x768. Should be easy enough to fix. Thanks a bunch.

janeth · #8 (**permalink**) 11-13-2003, 08:07 AM

The site looks good I think everyone has covered everything except the text. I think the color and font on the text is a little hard to read.

rocky1 · #9 (**permalink**) 11-13-2003, 02:10 PM

You might try downloading this one also John ~~> http://www.webceo.com/freeware/ I'm not sure what it's like; I have a predecessor I use all the time to check my rankings. You load the site and 4 keywords into it, click the button and it checks about 20 engines anywhere from 10 to all the sites for the find deep, whatever you elect. It tells you what page number they're on, what position, and whether it has risen or fallen since last querry, for each keyword entered.

It would appear the new version also suggests keywords based uopn your competitor's. I don't know for sure on that one however, I just downloaded it this morning myself. Haven't even open the file.

Again, should you have any questions, don't hesitate to shout.

Rocky

LiviLou · #10 (**permalink**) 11-13-2003, 02:44 PM

You did great on your first time. Were I you, I'd be proud of it.

chefpoe · #11 (**permalink**) 11-16-2003, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by captain john

I have just started a new buisness and just had to have a web site. I didn't know the first thing about designing one and I could not aford a professional site. I played around and tought my self some basics and this is what I came up with. www.michigansportfishing.com
Any and all advice and criticizm would be helpfull.

Thanks a bunch Captain John

Captain John,
First of all as a former Charter Captain of 22 Years myself I must say this site is very professionaly done.
Did you personaly build your site and I especialy am intreged with your navigation bars.
I had to retire due to strokes and am now doing website and am the executive chef at Austin's Gourmet.
Just want to say impressive site only wish I had it when I captained.

ChefPoe

captain john · #12 (**permalink**) 11-17-2003, 09:35 PM

bigger job than I expected. Over the last several days I have made many updates. Take a look and see if I missed any problem spots. Chef poe where and what for did you charter for?. Thanks a bunch folks

rocky1 · #13 (**permalink**) 11-18-2003, 11:45 AM

Site's looking much cleaner John, in both 1024 and 800 resolutions. Well done! Was definitely worth the repeat visit.

Rocky

captain john · #14 (**permalink**) 11-18-2003, 10:06 PM

Now i have the daunting task of search engine rankings to deal with.... errr.

captain john · #15 (**permalink**) 11-19-2003, 05:05 PM

is there a way to create alt tags in front page 2002 with out altering the code?

rocky1 · #16 (**permalink**) 11-20-2003, 04:29 AM

Hi John,

Yes, there is in fact.

If you refer to <alt> text on pictures, Right click on the picture. At the pop-up menu select the "General" tab. Middle of the page "Alternate representations" the second line "Text". Fill in the blank there, it will insert <alt> text into your code without your having to manually enter it in the script.

Should you however refer to hyperlinks, and this one can be used on either text or picture links... Right click on the link, select "Hyperlink Properties" at the top of the pop-up where it says "ScreenTip..." plug your alternate text in that blank.

One thing to be wary of, if you are using this for captioning on mouse over, that effect will not work on <alt> tags in Opera. Your alternate text runs only on screen while the picture loads, or in the event it does not load. If you plan to use the alt text caption to offer info on a link, you're far better off using the screentip as this will set a <Title> tag in your script instead, and Opera will read the text in that manner.

On mouse over you will get something to the effect of Title= "XXX" A: HREF="www.XYZ_co.com". If you simply use <alt> text on a link, all you'll get will be the URL in caption.

As for search engine growls above... did you by chance download the WebCEO software, and get that figured out yet to see if it finds you?

Rocky

rocky1 · #17 (**permalink**) 11-22-2003, 07:10 AM

Hi John,

Noticed the addition of the Message Board on the site, and the Hover Button link thereto bottom of the homepage. Be advised I experienced serious problems with Hover Buttons!

As indicated in article that made me front page news on the forum a few days back, I had installed Hover Buttons for navigation throughout my site initially. I discovered however that they cause problems in Microsoft XP. The Hover Button is a Java effect and as such causes creation of a Java Jar file, which XP does not like for some reason.

What we experienced was that XP required download of a Java virtual machine upon clicking the Hover Button, and upon opening the download it locks the XP user's computer up. I ran across that one with a friend who builds websites, and teaches Front Page at a local computer center, and he too had several sites that caused the same problem.

I'm not going to tell you that it will definitely lock all XP users up, as anytime you try to say a rule is set hard and fast in computers, they'll prove you wrong. But... the potential for problems has been proven there, and as such I would advise against the Hover Button. Once the Java Virtual Machine is installed, that viewer experiences problems the moment they see the page with that button on it.

Rocky

redcircle · #18 (**permalink**) 11-23-2003, 01:52 AM

I'll have to send my dad to your site. Fishing sites are the only reason he even uses the internet. Always has to get the wave report, temp breaks and all the other reports that come off of the lake.

captain john · #19 (**permalink**) 11-24-2003, 06:44 PM

do just that they hover in mid air, and move all over the place. thank for the heads up rocky. I have replaced my button with a home made one.

red circle tell your dad to check it out. we have links to all that info and a message board to boot. participation is encouraged.

rocky1 · #20 (**permalink**) 11-27-2003, 03:21 AM

Not a problem John. Was sure you weren't aware of it, and wouldn't want you wondering why no XP traffic showed up in your site stats! I had never checked Operating System Stats on my site prior to that experience, probably would have wondered what XP users had against me if I had!

Happy Thanksgiving!

stitches · #21 (**permalink**) 11-27-2003, 09:04 AM

John - I really enjoyed your site. We live in the Finger Lakes Region with some good fishing here too. I especially enjoyed the fact that your site loaded quickly and I could enjoy looking at all the pages without waiting or things to load. (Dial-up here). I wish my first attempt at a website looked half as good as yours! :-) I am only a novice designer, like you, designed my own, but I think your site looks great!

captain john · #22 (**permalink**) 11-29-2003, 05:13 PM

for the kind words. this site was designed for dial up and the average user. I have done a fair amount of surfing and get very frustated with sites that dont work or load poorly. I am still working on some technical stuff.

Rocky xp users seem to be showing up in my stats since the beginning. Hopefuly there will be no future trouples with this os.